Two-pronged strategy: Mukesh Ambani is coming for India's phones & wallets

At this month's AGM, Ambani promised to induct 'global partners and investors' in retail over the next few quarters

Things nobody should lose in a taxi — their phone and wallet — are what India’s richest man wants to control. And Mukesh Ambani intends to do it in a market of a billion-plus consumers.

The oil-and-petrochemicals tycoon’s digital services start-up requires him to dominate the use of mobile devices, while his retail chain, India’s largest, needs maximum grip on customers’ moneybags. Through the fog of the pandemic, the billionaire’s flagship Reliance Industries is showing glimpses of this twin-track strategy.

Although padded by a one-time gain from selling 49 per cent of its fuel retail business to BP, net income